SEC Pushes Back Decision on BlackRock, Fidelity’s Ether ETF Applications

The
U.S.
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
(SEC)
on
Monday
delayed
making
any
decision
on
ether

(ETH)
exchange-traded
fund
applications
from
BlackRock
and
Fidelity
on
Monday,
launching
comment
periods
for
both
applications
in
the
process.

The
SEC
asked
public
commenters
to
explain
if
they
agree
with

Fidelity,

BlackRock,
Cboe
and
Nasdaq
that
the
arguments
made
in
favor
of
the
recently
approved
spot
bitcoin
ETFs
similarly
support
ETFs
that
would
hold
Ethereum’s
ether.
The
regulator
also
wants
feedback
on
whether
spot
ether
ETFs
might
be
susceptible
to
manipulation
and
whether
spot
and
futures
ether
exchange-traded
products
are
similar.

Continuing
delays
in
the
next
few
weeks
are
to
be
expected,
with
May
23
being
the
date
to
watch
for,
said
James
Seyffart,
an
analyst
with
Bloomberg
Intelligence.
The
SEC
should
have
made
a
final
decision
on
the
applications
by
then.
But
there
are
other
signs
that
might
indicate
how
the
SEC
is
viewing
these
applications
over
the
next
month
or
so.

If
applicants
start
filing
updates
to
their
documentation
that
suggest
they’re
incorporating
feedback
directly
from
the
regulator
–
similarly
to
the
back-and-forth
in
the
weeks

before
bitcoin
ETFs
were
approved
in
January
–
it
would
be
a
sign
for
more
optimism,
he
said.

Issuers
have
already
filed
some
updates
over
the
past
few
weeks,
but
many
of
these
seem
to
reflect
lessons
learned
from
the
bitcoin
ETF
application
process,
rather
than
responding
to
specific
guidance
or
feedback
from
the
SEC.

“We’ve
seen
a
couple
updates
over
the
last
30
days.
Some
of
the
different
issuers
have
done
some
things,
but
what
that
was,
as
far
as
I’m
concerned
…
a
lot
of
the
updates
thus
far
have
been
them
bringing
these
Ethereum
filings
up
to
date
with
the
things
they
learned
in
the
bitcoin
ETF
process.
There’s
nothing
that’s
been
updated
that
is
specific
to
ETH,”
he
said.
“We
haven’t
seen
anything
that’s
relevant
specifically
to
an
update
that
indicates
to
us
for
sure
that
the
SEC
is
talking
to
any
of
these
guys
about
a
theory,
but
they
are
notoriously
close-lipped
and
not
supposed
to
talk
to
anyone.”